POSTCAST: Timberwolves STUN Denver Nuggets, Win Game One

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T-Wolves win game one in Denver 106.99.

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We're breaking it all down.

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It's coming up next on the lockdown. Wolves Postcast ORG.

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You are Locked-on Wolves Postcast, part of Locked-on Minnesota on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, what's up?

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Back in the lab. Back at it, another T-Wolves postcast episode right here on the Locked on Sports Minnesota ORG. Network, myself, Luke PERSON, at Luke underscore spinman. That's the man, Jack Borman, co-hosts of the Minnesota basketball party each and every Wednesday. Follow him on X. At J.R. Borman 13 and Jack PERSON.Before we jump into all the action from tonight, quick reminder, tonight's episode brought to us by Monopoly Go PRODUCT. The new fast-paced game lets you team up with friends for tournaments to unlock awesome prizes like unique stickers, cool playing pieces, and hilarious emojis for taunting your friends. Go download Monopoly Go PRODUCT. Now for free on Google Play or the app store. Okay, buddy. All right. Round two of the playoffs. Game one. We're in Denver. What's the stepbrothers quote? Why are y'all sweaty? Oh, I was watching cops. Except I wasn't watching cops tonight, Jack. I was watching game one. Nuggets ORG T. Wolves. And it was absolute battle. A roller coaster for all 48 minutes. Wolves jump out to that 14 point lead very early in this one. Nuggets come marching right back. As soon as the Wolf ORG's bench came into play, we'll get, we'll kind of break that down a little bit later.In fact, they go into halftime down four. Okay, they're down for. But the starters outscored Denver 21 to 8 that first half. The bench, though, got outscored 19 to 36. So a huge surprise, especially compared to what we've seen from the T. Wolf's ORG bench, really all season long. So second half we go, Carl Anthony Towns PERSON comes out on fire.Dude couldn't miss four of four in the first three minutes alone. He scored nine quick ones, gave the Wolves ORG the lead again. Back and forth, things went until about the six minute mark of the fourth quarter, Wolves kind of turned it on, found another gear, going that 14-4 run with two minutes left. They're up nine points. They end up winning this thing, 10699. They do the impossible. They still game one in Denver, Jack. Anthony Edwards, 43 points. My goodness. So much to break down,but let's just start with your biggest takeaways, your A-topics first and foremost.

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Yeah, man, Nazreid is topic A for me in the sense that I think the Timberwolves ORG completely deserved to lose this game with the way that they were giving away everything that they were earning in the non-yokic minutes at the start of the fourth quarter. You have Nas PERSON make a really tough post-up score over his right shoulder to his left hand, and then they give it back with a Gordon and one. And then the next trip down, Mike makes that grenade three off an amazing feed from Nause PERSON.And then Carl Fowles, Jamal Murray, shooting a three, and instead of having a three-point lead, they're down one. And then the way that Nause and Mike Conley PERSON just continued to find ways to conjure up points. Nas Reid, his previous playoff career high was 13 points. I believe it was against the Sons in game three this year. He had 14 points in the fourth quarter of this game alone.And to do it when Carl Anthony Towns picks up his fifth file has to go to the bench and then Nas comes out and then scores 12 of his points, I believe, after Carl Anthony Towns PERSON exits the game. I think you really have to just shake his hand because he looked pretty bad in that first, really the first three quarters. He looked pretty lost out there for the most part.Didn't look super confident what he was doing. It was playing some solid defense on Yokic PERSON, but you have to give so much credit to these guys for the way that they just kind of played whackamol. When one guy was really starting to struggle, another guy stepped up and made it happen. And we'll get into kind of how that happened throughout the course of the game. But I just thought for Nas to score 10 straight points in the fourth quarter at one point againstDenver on the road in a game one scenario against Nuggets ORG team that I don't think trailed in the playoffs in any series last year for them to do that in this spot was huge and then you know just the way that the Timberwolves were able to out-execute the Nuggets ORG down the really the whole stretch of the fourth quarter the Nuggets ORG had a plus 24.5 net rating in the clutch this year which was best in the

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NBA. And those two guys with Murray and Yokic and then Porter Jr. off the wing, Gordon PERSON cutting to

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the basket, hitting lobs, playing off of Yokich really well in the paint. And then when you think you have those four wrapped up contiguous Caldwell, Pope is the guy that can step in, make a three, attack off the catch, make tough shots. I mean, they're just so well balanced and fit so well together for the wolves to out-execute them down the stretch in the way that they did. I think they ended the game on like a 16 to 7 run or something like that over the finalfive minutes is pretty incredible. You know, you have to, again, Anthony Edwards, we'll get more to Ant, but I thought the way that the Timberwolves kind of took advantage of the fact that the nuggets were switching everything up top that did not involve Yokic PERSON. So the wolves were setting small to small screen. So basically any screen that did not involve Yokich as the big man defender. The nuggets were switching all of those. So Anthony Edwards was just able to pick his poison and dice up the defense.He did this a ton in the regular season when I was going back and watching film for the regular season. Whenever Aaron Gordon switched out on him, he always backed it out to the three-point line and almost always put the ball on the deck and drove. And that's exactly what he did. And then when it was Contabius called Wel Pope or Jamal Murray or Christian Brown PERSON,he got into the mid-range, got physical, got to those post-ups. And it felt like every single time he got into the mid-range with his back to the basket, he found a way to score from the mid-range, which was just incredible. And if I would have told you, or if you would have told me that Ant PERSON would be doing this, you know, a year ago that his mid-range game would arguably be the most important part of his game in the playoffs, I would have struggled to believe you, just because it was so clearthat he did not have it and he was still so good in the playoffs last year for him to put in the work over the summer and come back and just become this apex predator in the playoffs that he has been is going to be just a sight to behold for the rest of this series, the rest of this playoffs and the rest of his career. But for Anthony Edwards to score 43 points on 17 of 29 shooting, he was 14 of 21 inside the arc, three of seven beyond the arc, and only made six free throws.Playoff career had 43 points, only made six free throws. For how physical the player is, how physical the Denver ORG defense is, you know, it's just incredible that he had gas in the tank to be as efficient as he was down the stretch of this game. And my favorite part of this whole entire game from Anthony Edwards, he had one turnover. And the one turnover he had was on that blatant miss call when Contavius Caldwell Pope PERSON just slapped him across the arm.Man. That was ruled a turnover, I believe, and that was the lone turnover that he had. And one other note I want to make. This is from Kirk Goldsbury PERSON on Twitter. Players that have scored at least 35 plus points in three straight playoff games at age 22 or younger, Louell Cinder, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Anthony Edwards is pretty remarkable.

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That's some nice company to keep right there for sure. Kobe LeBron, Louel Cinder, and Anthony Edwards. That's unbelievable, man.

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And one more thing too, and we can get into this a little bit more. Sure. But for the Timberwolves starting five to play as well as they did in the second half, how efficient the Timberwolves were the whole entire second half.

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In the third quarter, the Timberwolves were 10 of 12 from two, four of seven from three.

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In the fourth quarter, they were 10 of 14 from two, three of five from three. And I had six assist to two turnovers and they had 30 points in the paint in the second half. The starters, this whole game won 46 to 32 plus 14 and 18 minutes and 55 seconds of play. For the, and if you want to look at the plus minus, Jaden plus 14, Rudy plus 12, Carl, plus six, Mike plus 20, plus 10.And for Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon to be minus 22 and minus 23 respectively, you have to give this Timberwolves team a lot of credit because this starting five is experienced. They play off each other really well. They fit like a glove. And for the starters to be that loud and that good, we thought that they'd have to make up ground with the bench,and that did not happen for the most part in this game, with how good Denver ORG's veteran bench players were. But for the starters to send that type of a message in game one, despite Jaden McDaniels PERSON, Jaden McDaniel's shooting 0 of 6, Rudy Gobert PERSON not really involved as a score at all,and Mike Conley having zero points at halftime. There was a lot that went wrong, and they just overcame it. And you have to give them credit because it feels like the Timberwolves ORG would have wilted

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when you have some dumb fouls in the fourth quarter. You have some, that's soft technical. You have a couple of other soft calls that go against you.

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But like we've been saying on this show, all playoffs, whenever the tough gets going and things don't go, the Timberwolves ORG away, they just band together and find a way and get behind Anthony Edwards. And it is just then a sight to behold to see them do this.

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Such a treat to watch. Again, I almost want to, and we can go a variety of different ways, we can take this any amount of directions, but I almost want to start in the fourth quarter and work our way back. However, just because we got to jump to segment two here real quick, let's just tackle this one out the gate, the elephant in the room, only because I see a lot of people in the stream referring to it. You mentioned the no call on the only Anthony Edwards turnover.And then, of course, the technical foul from Anthony Edwards, right, with a little pretty weak stare down. And then Murray, okay, wait technical foul from Anthony Edwards, right, with a little pretty weak stare down. And then Murray PERSON, okay, wait a man, on the other side, Murray doesn't get called for the taunting. Talk me off the ledge if you want to, if you want to take that stance or direction, or just talk to us about what you thought about the officiating tonight. And then we'll move on to the bread and butter and the X's and O's.

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Yeah, I just thought it was unfortunate. Like, Anthony PERSON didn't even say anything. You just stared him down. And that honestly kind of changed the momentum of things. You had that play. And then you had Michael Porter Jr.There was a really soft foul call on Kyle Anderson that put the nuggets in the bonus late in the third quarter. And then, you know, the momentum kind of started to shift from it really being on the Timberwolf ORG side to back to almost even, that that was unfortunate. I guarantee you that Anthony Edwards technical gets rescinded tomorrow morning. So we'll see. I just again, I can't say enough about the way that the Timberwolves ORG have had an emotional composure as a collective. And it really kept their heads, especially Carl Anthony Towns PERSON. He has had the most ground to make up in terms of, you know,finding that, you know, just steady level. And he certainly has done that even when calls have not gone his way. He's just kind of kept his head down. And it's really done wonders for this team. And you can't say enough about the presence of Mike Conley PERSON and, you know, and Chris Finch and Mike Anori for being there for all those guys and just helping Mike Conley and, you know, and Chris Finch andMike Anori PERSON for being there for all those guys and just helping them say, hey, you know, we're all right. We got it. Just, you know, let's play our game. And to the Timberwell PERSON's credit, they've just continued to work. And, you know, and the work is, you know, what they say, when you put in the work, the scoreboard takes care of itself. And that's what has happened in every single postseason

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game so far this year. And really to your point here, Jack, no matter who you asked, no matter what Wolves ORG player or coach for that matter, was asked about just what are they going to be the differences in this series, in this game specifically in game one. Everybody said or at least mentioned to a point that, hey, we can't sit here and look at the refs for all these calls. Yeah, they're going to be ebbs and flows throughout every single game. We're going to get some calls sometimes and they're going to go against us sometimes. But the Denver Nuggets and Joker PERSON specifically will make you pay if you standunderneath the wrong side of the hoop and sit there with your hands up and say, hey, what's going on? Because they'll make you pay for that. So yeah, interesting takes there for sure. Again, I think big picture, this stuff usually balances itself out. It usually evens itself out through the course of a seven game series. All right, want to get to the X's and O's. Let's jump to our first quick ad break here real quick.But rest assured, again, plenty more deep dive on this Wolves game one versus Denver ORG. That's all coming up right after this. All right, quick reminder, tonight's show, brought to us by Monopoly Go PRODUCT. Now, I've been told I'm the competitive one in the household. I'm the guy who's always trying to kick things up a notch, right? Create some friendly competition, if you will.That's exactly why Monopoly Go PRODUCT is perfect. And not just for me, but over 150 million other people that have already downloaded it. It's the new latest and greatest twist on the classic monopoly we all love and remember. And now you can play on not just one board, but hundreds of monopoly boards, all with different crazy locations, helping you build up amazing new cities that bring you big money. And best part, without a doubt, messing with your friends and family,charge them rent on all the iconic properties. And you can even steal their vaults of cash or team up with your friends and family charge them rent on all the iconic properties and you can even steal their vaults of cash or team up with your friends earn big rewards so what are you waiting for get in the game play with all your family all your buddies download monopoly go for free at the app store and google play hi i'm j from Locked on.

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Okay, I kind of want to work our way backwards here just a little bit for this segment to. Fourth quarter, you kind of touched on obviously the Monster Quarter, Nas Reid PERSON had, I kind of want to work our way backwards here just a little bit for this segment two. Fourth quarter, you kind of touched on, obviously, the monster quarter, Nas Reid had, I think 14 minimum. Maybe you got a couple more there at the end. You know, Mike Conley made that big three bomb. That was huge. And then again, you have in your notes here, they just out executed Denver ORG down the stretch. Denver ORG, mind you, the best clutch team in the league.Your Minnesota Timberwolves ORG out executed this team on the road, no less, in the fourth quarter when it mattered most. Take it wherever you want to, whatever direction you want to, but that fourth quarter, including Anthony Edwards, again, who we already touched on, but Ant was incredible in that fourth quarter, again, when it mattered most. What do you think?

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Yeah, again, I mean, they were just switch hunting. Ant PERSON has become an efficient enough isolation player, at least in the playoffs. He really is improved upon his regular season numbers in isolation now in the playoffs. But yeah, they were just switch hunting and letting Ant PERSON cook and make the right decision. And then, you know, they were loading up so hard on Ant coming off of screens that, you know, they had a guy in the gap ready to go coming around the screen like Phoenix GPE did. And when that happened, Ant PERSON made the simple pass into the, to the slot.And then Nas Reid got the ball in the corner or Nikolai was Interwalker PERSON, got the ball in the corner. And Mike Connolly PERSON got it in the corner. You saw Nas PERSON attack out of the corner a couple times to get buckets at the rim. And then, you know, if it was Mike Conley or Jaden that PERSON was attacking from the corner, they were able to make kickout passes to the slot.And then the other thing is Aunt noticed that they were loading up on him in the slot. And he didn't want, I guess he didn't want his teammates to be the only one shooting the ball. He wanted to himself be able to put pressure on Denver ORG. So he stopped calling for, you know, real screens. I mean, when Mike Conley PERSON or or J. McDaniels PERSON or whomever the small is is running over to just kind of set a brush screen,that that's not really a screen that's going to come around. They're just doing that to force a switch and allow Ant PERSON to then dance in the middle of the floor with no help coming against the defense. So that was just a way for him to get one-on-one coverage. And we've seen what Anthony Edwards has done the entire postseason when he's at one-on-one coverage. And we've seen what Anthony Edwards has done the entire postseason when he's at one-on-one coverage. And then on the other end of the floor,you have to give Nasri to a ton of credit for battling with Nicole Yukich PERSON.

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He made it really difficult for the Joker PERSON to get all the way to the rim

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and get into the paint.

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Because we saw what happened when Rudy was the one guarding Yokic PERSON. They were setting a ton of cross screens across the middle of the lane to have it switch from Naz guarding the Joker to having Rudy PERSON guard him. And that's exactly what happened late down the stretch. And he just totally went straight through Rudy PERSON's chest, got kind of that restricted arc right in the front of the rimand just got the ball up there on the rim and was able to score with easease probably three or four times. And that's something that the Timberwolves ORG are certainly going to have to come up with a counter for in between games one and two because that's something that they're going to want to do. But at the end of the day, like I would much rather have that than them just spamming pick and rollfrom Jamal Murray and Nicole Yokic PERSON. We didn't see a whole lot of that in the fourth quarter.

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They spent a lot of time working beneath the arc. And that was a little problematic when you consider that the timber wolves are spreading the floor and scoring points and bunches and enforces and enforcers and scoring off

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those turnovers that, you know, when the wolves are scoring at a higher rate more often than the nuggets are, you're going to have to kind of make up that mass some way if you're not getting stops. And so they just, I don't think they shot enough threes or tried to generate enough threes. You know, we saw it throughout this game. I thought Denver struggled for the most part to generate open three point looks in the half court. But then they really looked and sought out the three point line in transition.You saw in the early part of that third quarter, the wolves turned it over twice and got open threes for Contavius Caldwell Pope PERSON in the corner and then Michael Porter Jr. PERSON in the slot. And to kind of get those guys going in transition, get the crowd back into the game, those are just the killers. And it's why you need to play with such a high level of discipline against the nuggets, especially in Denver ORG, because they're just going to make you pay when you turn the ball over. I mean, they square 26 points off of 14 Minnesota GPE turnovers. I mean, if you told me that's what the turnover situation would have been at the start of the game.I just that there's like a 10% chance that the wolves win this game. But yeah, another reason why I think it's just going to be more difficult for Denver ORG to execute and they're going to have to go through Nicola Yolkich a ton to Jamal Murray PERSON, man. I felt terrible. I just wanted

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to ask you about him. Yeah, Jamal Murray PERSON. Just your quick thoughts on Jamal Murray. What's going on with him?

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How healthy is he really? And how that affects Denver ORG and then in turn, how it affects the T-Wolves game plan as well. Yeah. You know, Anthony Edwards, they started the game with Ant on Jamal Murray, which I loved from the Timberwolves ORG.

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That wasn't something that I was necessarily expecting. But I really liked it.

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Ant was super physical with Jamer PERSON, got right into him and kind of forced

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Jamal PERSON to try to beat him off the dribble, and he just couldn't do it. And he, Jamal Murray was incredible in that closeout game against the Lakers ORG, even though he was clearly pretty limited. I think he had like 30 something points in that game. Of course, had the game winner as well, but he looked a lot worse physically in this game than he did in that game five. And you could just tell that his explosion wasn't there. He didn't create the same type of separation on stepbacks and didn't elevate as muchwith his jumper. And, you know, the Timberwolves ORG really made it difficult for him outside of the, you know, the couple little floaters that he had in the lane or walk in jumpers out of pick and roll. So I think if they can fight over those screens and force Jamal Murray PERSON to, to beat them with athleticism and explosion, I think that's a recipe for success just because, you know, I don't think Jamal Murray is healthier than like 65 or 70 percent.

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And it's unfortunate because I legitimately do not think that there is a guard that has been more clutch in the playoffs over the last, you know, three or four seasons than Jamal Murray PERSON.

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He's just a joy to watch and to see these teams be able to go toe to toe to at full strength, I think would have been amazing. But it's pretty clear to me that the Jamal Murray PERSON is pretty compromised. And obviously they have the three days off in between game two and game three. Game two is Monday. Game three is Friday back in Minneapolis GPE.So, you know, I don't know if he'll really improve all that much. If he's not feeling great after having, you know, three days off or whatever it was after the Lakers ORG game. And Michael Malone said before the game that he really did not participate and practice much this week. So, yeah, I just really hope that Jamal Murray PERSON can somehow conjure up some health because, you know, this Nuggets team is just a lot different when he's not there and he's not 100%.I mean, you think about the fact that the Nuggets still scored 99 points with Jamal Murray PERSON, you know, only contributing somehow was able to get 17 points in the second half of this game.

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As he gets zero points in the first half, correct? 17 and second half.

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Yeah, it was his first scoreless half of his playoff career. Unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, he walked into quite a few easy jumpers and then had the five just ridiculous points off that stepback three grenade at the buzzer at the shot clock buzzer and then that crazy layup over Rudy PERSON. But yeah, I mean, Michael Porter Jr. has been awesome in the playoffs. Is he going to be able to continue to give you 20 points if Jaden McDaniels PERSON is goingto guard him? I don't know. We'll see. I think he certainly is capable of it. And I think he got a lot of his points when Jaden was not guarding him when Kyle Anderson was guarding him or Kat PERSON was guarding him. So yeah, we'll see. Maybe it's got to be more of Contavius Caldwell Pope PERSON stepping up there to kind of fill that void. But yeah, and then defensively on Yokic, I don't know if you want to get to this year.

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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what, nine assists but fours turnovers, six turnovers by Joker tonight? Is that right?

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That is correct.

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Yeah. So Nicola Yokic PERSON averaged fewer turnovers, or excuse me, fewer assists against the Timberwolves ORG than he did against any

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other team in the league this season. And it certainly showed. I think, you know, Carl Anthony Towns deserves a ton of credit for the way that he's been able to fight in this matchup. I wrote this in my series preview over at Canis, but Carl Anthony Towns since the start of last season,

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including the playoffs, has held Nicola Yokic to like 37.8% shooting it's like 46 points on 48 shots and that of any

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player that's guarded Nicole Yokic PERSON for as much as he has that is the lowest field goal percentage by far the next highest player is Alperin shengun right around 48 49 percent and and they've really figured this out in the next two and three and the second and third guys, or excuse me, the third and fourth guys behind Schengun and Kat are Sabonis and Nurkich, two other really physical guys. And so when you're able to be physical with Yokic PERSON and prevent him from getting all the way to the front of the restricted area and kind of force him to play more in that short mid-rangearea where you can just contest shots without fouling and you're in a better position to rebound, I think you're going to live right. And Carl PERSON did an awesome job of preventing Yokic PERSON from getting all the way to the rim. And then, you know, when he wasn't in the game and Nas wasn't guarding him, you saw what happened. And so again, the Timberwolves ORG, when they're playing single coverage on Yokich, they're able to stay home on everyone else. They're able to communicate offball screens a lot better. They're able to kind of get in Yokic PERSON's passing lanes and make passes more difficult for him. And then when he has to put it on the deck,they're able to kind of collapse in traffic. And J. McDaniels PERSON did a good job forcing a couple turnovers on digs, on drives, which is great. But again, like I said, forcing them to play in the mid-range. This Denver team is an excellent three-point shooting team. They're an excellent team at the rim. They had 24 shots in the mid-range shots. They shot eight of 34, or eight of 24 on those mid-range shots. That's 33%. That's incredibly encouraging to me that they were able to force Denver ORG, run Denver off the line and force that many mid-range shots. I mean, we consider they shot 70% at the rim and 42% from deep.Anything that you can force Denver to take that is not in those two areas is going to be a win. And they certainly did that tonight. I thought that they, again, with Jamal Murray PERSON being limited, they're just not going to run as much pick and roll with him and Yokic PERSON. And they ran a ton of stuff early in the game with Murray PERSON off the ball to try to, you know, get him catches where he had enough separation.He could just get up three point shots or get up shots in the mid-range curling off of screens without having to dribble too much. And when they forced Jamal PERSON to play off the, you know, off the dribble that wasn't in that Yokage pick and roll game, he just really struggled to get anywhere.And so I think if the Timberwolves ORG can continue to fight over screens and be right there with him when he catches the ball coming off his screen or fight over the screen in that Yokic PERSON pick and roll and kind of force him to go east to west a little bit more rather than north-south, I think it could just be a difficult series in terms of Denver for being able to score the ball. And then for Yokic, I mean, Yokic played in between 39 and 41 minutes, I believe,in all five of the games in the last series.

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And he, I think, looked exhausted by the end of this game.

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You look toast.

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And if he's going to have to continue to play, you know, as much as he did tonight,

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I think that that's just going to be, it's going to be time. I mean, he played 41 minutes tonight. So they did, you know, again, we could talk about the non-yokage minutes, but he's just going to, I think, be really worn out by how high his usage rate is going to have to be, especially as a score backing down if Jamal Murray is not able to be there 100%.

Speaker 51620.62s - 1695.52s

Yeah, phenomenal breakdown there. So much, again, to dive into after this game one. Don't go anywhere. We've got to take a quick ad break, but we're going to preview game two Monday night. That's all coming up right after this. All right, quick reminder tonight's episode. Also brought to us by eBay Motors ORG, passion, drive, patience. What brings home the winning trophy is what also keeps your rider die alive.And eBay Motors ORG, they got everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to the ultimate peak performance. Superchargers, roof racks, eBay Motors ORG, they got it all. And whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors ORG has got you covered. Check this out. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay ORG's guaranteed fit, your part isguaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors ORG, you're burning rubber, not cash with all the parts you need at the prices you want. It's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your rider die live at eBaymotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay's guaranteed fit, only available to U.S. GPE customers.

Speaker 21698.18s - 1741.8s

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Speaker 51743.84s - 1757.4s

All right, I want to ask you about Cat here, but first, real quick, let's take a step back here. I know the dust is still settling, but best play or best moment from game one tonight, what was it? What's the one thing you'll always remember from game one when we look back?

Speaker 31759.06s - 1764.22s

Man, I, you know, I think it'll probably just be the way that Nasrides PERSON stepped up in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 51764.36s - 1775.06s

I think the hook back dunk. Yeah. You know, I, like'll probably just be the way that Nazarie stepped up in the fourth quarter. I think the putback dunk, you know, I, like, jumped up and slammed my knee on the bottom of my desk here and had to walk that off.

Speaker 31775.18s - 1780.38s

I mean, it's, that was, the entire state of Minnesota GPE had something similar happened.

Speaker 51780.82s - 1781.78s

Something similar happened.

Speaker 31781.78s - 1786.14s

Yeah, that putback absolutely shook the entire state of

Speaker 51786.14s - 1802.76s

Minnesota. How about just the biggest surprise tonight? I mean, we did so much preparation leading into the series after what we saw in the Phoenix GPE series. What was the biggest surprise tonight for you and your money? Could be for good, could be for bad, and either team for that matter.

Speaker 31803.62s - 1832.96s

Yeah, I think it was probably the fact that Michael Malone PERSON went to Justin Holliday and Reggie Jackson and that they played so well in the first half of this game. Denver's bench players only played 18.5% of the available minutes in the first round series, which was the lowest of any team in the first round. The wolves were up closer to 28%. So I really thought that the wolves would have more of an advantagethan the 2315 mark they had, but it was not that at halftime.

Speaker 11834.02s - 1837.64s

And yeah, I just thought that those guys played pretty well.

Speaker 51837.64s - 1842.14s

And then Christian Brown PERSON ended up playing 19 minutes

Speaker 31842.14s - 1857.54s

well above the 13 minutes that he played in the first round series, which made sense to me because I think he's their best option to guard Anthony Edwards of any of the players that they have. But yeah, and then for me, too, it's Nikiel and Jaden only combining to score five points.

Speaker 01858.08s - 1864.2s

The fact that they scored five points on two of 13 shooting only made one of seven threes, and the Timberwell still won this game by seven points.

Speaker 31864.7s - 1895.32s

I think if those two guys give you anything, a little bit more than that, I think the wolves are going to be in great shape from a scoring perspective because if Carl Anthony Towns PERSON is going to give you 20 points on 8 of 13 shooting, that's good with me. I know that he had four turnovers or five turnovers. What do you have here? He had one turnover, excuse me.Mike had four turnovers, which is one, one row below him. But yeah, for Carl PERSON to play that way is huge. I think the biggest thing for Carl PERSON is to stop posting up at the nail and stop posting up 17 feet away from the basket.

Speaker 01895.32s - 1908.3s

He did not score when he caught the ball inside the arc in those settings. He only caught, he only scored when he caught the ball either in transition or caught the ball above the break and either shot threes or attacked off the catch when Aaron Gordon closed out to him.

Speaker 31909.24s - 1916.08s

You know, those are the situations in which Carl PERSON scored. It should be pretty easy to make that adjustment watching the film.

Speaker 01916.24s - 1917.64s

I understand why they want to do it.

Speaker 41917.64s - 1921.18s

They want to get him clear out isolations in the middle of the floor against smaller defenders.

Speaker 01921.34s - 1922.1s

I understand that.

Speaker 41922.64s - 1929.94s

But if you're going to get him on the move going towards the basket, I would, I would just rather have Carl PERSON catch the ball above the break and then

Speaker 01929.94s - 1935.32s

get going downhill from there rather than having a catch, turn, face, take five more seconds and then do

Speaker 31935.32s - 1942.24s

it. You know, I think it just, you know, kind of leans itself towards, you know, quicker decision

Speaker 01942.24s - 1945.4s

making, if that makes sense. No, absolutely it does.

Speaker 51945.4s - 1964.78s

What do you think of the, and we got a couple minutes left, then we got to get out of here. Unfortunately, I could talk about this game all night with you, literally, but what do you think about the whole Chris Finch, Mike and Norrie PERSON kind of combination, how that whole thing unfolded, how it flowed together,and then what do you think those two in tandem did really well tonight as far as coaching this team?

Speaker 31965.78s - 2042.06s

Yeah, I think, you know, they have a ton of respect for Mike Anori PERSON. I think it definitely helped that Chris Finch was right there. So Mike Anora was able to talk to Chris Finch the whole entire time. Players, when they were coming off the floor when they were near the bench, we're able to hear Chris Finch, you know, talk to him. I think that this was probably the best possible scenario when we first heard,is it going to be a suite? Is it going to be back in the locker? Is there going to be a headset situation? Like everything we heard was just like, oh, that does not sound good at all. It kind of sounded like Chris Finch would have a really small impact on this game. But he was right there in the action. And I think, you know, again, it's unfortunately going to be a little bit different at Target Center because you have that, that,you know, media board that's right there that can kind of help protect Chris Finch. I don't, you know, at Target Center FAC is way more open. So I don't know how it's going to work at Target Center FAC.I think it'll be a little tougher there. But the good news is, is like you're playing at home. You know, the crowd's working with you. So,you know, maybe it'll be a little bit easier in terms of that kind of balances out the, I guess how much more difficult it makes it to communicate in there. But we'll see. I thought, you know, again, to also have that going on and he's still able to win game one by seven on the road. And guess what?You know, the Timberwolves ORG are playing with house money now. All the pressure is on Denver ORG.

Speaker 52042.28s - 2044.2s

I was just going to ask you that to that point.

Speaker 32044.32s - 2068.18s

Like how important is it to win game one? Because no matter what now, you're going back to many at least tied up at one, man. That's so huge. It's huge. I think, again, it puts so much more pressure on Nicole Yokic PERSON. Again, like for Anthony Edwards to be the best player on the Florida night and not particularlyto be close, I think, again, like, Yokic is going to be ready to go in game two. And we might see an

Speaker 02068.18s - 2074.98s

all-time Yokic PERSON game in game, too, because when the moment needs him, he always delivers, no matter

Speaker 32074.98s - 2114.28s

what defense he sees, he's a basketball genius. He might be the smartest basketball player that has ever walked the face of the earth and, you know, does all this not communicating in his first language, which is incredible. So, yeah, I've no doubt that Yokic PERSON is going to come back in game too, but, I mean, it's just so much pressure on, on everyone else. And again, like, you expect that Jaden PERSON and the keel are going to give you a little bit more than what they gave you in this game. And, you know, maybe you can see Nas get going a little bit sooner. Maybe Mike gets going a little bit sooner.You know, you hope Aunt doesn't need to score 43, but, I mean, didn't look like you had to work super hard to get those 43,

Speaker 52114.54s - 2140.2s

if that makes sense. Well, you just laid out a couple great bullet points, but again, game two on deck now Monday night, 9 p.m. Central Standard Time. That's when tip off is. I guess what are you looking for as far as the wolves tightening up the most? And then what changes the most from a game plan standpoint?Again, you know, after seeing this Denver team, what everything looked like in game one, now going into game two? What are you changing the most from that standpoint?

Speaker 32140.62s - 2143.42s

You don't want to, you don't want to foul two seconds in the game.

Speaker 52143.58s - 2144.46s

You don't want to do that.

Speaker 32145.5s - 2166.54s

You certainly don't want to turn the ball over as much as they did. I thought the wolves made too many really, you know, not locked in passes in a sense of, you know, just not valuing the ball on every single possession. I think there were a few turnovers that certainly fit that description. And then what I want to see more of is, you know, if you're going to play Kyle Henderson PERSON, I really like the idea of playing Kyle Anderson at the five.

Speaker 52166.64s - 2169.56s

Like a lot of people think Nas re-plays the five. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 32169.58s - 2171.06s

A lot of people think Nas re-plays the five.

Speaker 52171.14s - 2177.64s

But look at who Kyle Anderson guards. And Kyle Anderson is the one that is setting a ton of screens and Nause PERSON is still in the corner. Like Kyle Anderson is playing center.

Speaker 32178.26s - 2198.62s

And when they subbed in Monta Morris near the end of the third quarter and pushed Kyle Anderson up to the five to give some better spacing for Anthony Edwards and the Wolves ORG. They immediately went on a 7-0 run. And I don't think they gave up the lead, really. Maybe they gave it up once after that Jamal Murray and won early in the fourth quarter, but that gave them the breathing room that they needed to kind of have some confidence going into the fourth quarter.

Speaker 02199.02s - 2203.36s

Even though Monti Morris didn't really do anything, you missed one shot in three minutes,

Speaker 32203.42s - 2236.8s

I just thought that the added spacing that that provided was huge and kind of helped kind of get more in a rhythm and entering into the final stretch. Helped Nas PERSON read, I think. Just kind of feel more confident the floor was going to open up for him. And help to give the wolves a lead going into the fourth quarter, which you certainly want to have every single time you're playing a team like Denver ORG,where margin for air is pretty slim in the fourth quarter. So if you can give yourself any type of edge and advantage going in the fourth quarter, we've seen all playoffs long. It's very difficult to play against this Timberwolves ORG team when you're behind.

Speaker 52237.58s - 2308.68s

I could pick your brain about this game, this matchup, this series, these players, the X's and O's, the coaches literally all night. We've got to get out of here, though. You're an elite NBA ORG mind. T. Wolf stunned Denver on the road, win game one. And another legendary legacy type of playoff performance tonight, 43 points.Day off tomorrow. Enjoy it. We got game two on deck Monday. Tip up for that one. Again, 9 p.m. Central Standard ORG time. As always, huge shout out to all you guysthat joined us on the stream. You guys are awesome. Rest assured, we'll be back each and every game. Same time, same place right here to break it all down. Quick reminder, go check out all of Jack PERSON's work on X at J.R. Borman 13. You can check them out on the Minnesota GPE basketball party with Sam Ekstrom, Reggie Wilson, Ron Johnson. That's each and every Wednesday afternoon. Not to mention, we always got Ben Beacon PERSON. He's killing it over on the Lockdown Wolf's podcast. That's each and every Wednesday afternoon. Not to mention, we always got Ben Beacon. He's killing it over on the Lockdown Wolf's ORG podcast.That's each and every day as well. All right, that'll do it for us tonight. We've got to get out of here. That's Jack PERSON. I'm Luke PERSON. We'll see it for game two.But until then, signing out. A Prime members, you can listen to this locked on podcast ad free on Amazon Music ORG.

Speaker 12309.24s - 2311.4s

Download the Amazon Music app today.